adventures in disaster

tragedy?

I have avoided writing anything about Anna Nicole . I guess because it's such a damn sad story that has been repeated over and over. I think everyone that saw Anna knew she was doomed. No one can be that high forever.
Methadone is a damn tricky drug. It is cumulative. That means even if you start with a very small dose it can still kill you three days later. Because you don't break it down and excrete it quickly methadone hangs around a long time and when you take your next dose you are unaware that you have yet to fully process the first dose. It's the third dose that overdoses you and kills you. Even those who have a long history with methadone are still at great risk for overdose if not monitored very closely.
This brings me to what pisses me off the most about Anna's death. Anna had real doctors. She didn't do street drugs, she did prescription drugs. Someone wrote those prescriptions and that someone was a medical doctor. Her doctor appears to be drug dealer with a degree.
The second thing that pisses me off is that nurse. Howard Stern hired around the clock medical help to monitor and care for Anna. I understand she was suicidally depressed, hell who wouldn't be?This women was broken and the nurse that was responsible for keeping Anna alive failed in her duty.
All nurses know about private duty nurses. They are supposed to provide complete care for the patient. They are supposed to stay up all night long and watch their patient.
I don't check my patient at the beginning of my night shift and then wander off to watch TV and then go to bed and when I finally wake up the next morning I go and check my patient before I leave. That is not nursing.
The nurses responsible for caring for Anna should have been monitoring her directly night and day. They should have had intimate knowledge of drug addiction and they should have had an overdose kit at the ready.
Anna got nothing. She should have had ACLS from the moment she was found but the nurse didn't seem to be prepared to begin CPR without help from her husband the paramedic ten minutes away.

The nursing staff should have been prepared for overdose and when I heard that these idiots gave her an ice bath because she had a fever I knew these weren't real nurses.
Any fool knows ice baths during fever can be a disaster as it causes shivering and shivering ratchet ups your temp even higher not to mention why the hell wasn't an ambulance called?
She was horribly ill with a fever of 105, she has fallen the night before her death, was obviously drug addled..why the hell wasn't an ambulance called?
Why was Anna Nicole denied the right to competent and compassionate health care?
Why were these nurses, paramedics and doctors that managed her life so uncaring of the very life they were responsible for?

I can't comment on why Anna did the drugs she did. I only know a doctor gave them to her.
That doctor can take some responsibilty for Anna, the nurses that were clueless about how to care for a suicidally depressed drug addicted new mother should have their licenses revoked.
Every nurse has the right to refuse an assignment if they feel they don't have the experience or training to provide competent care. If those nurses weren't addiction experts with a good psych work history they should never have taken the job. Obviously they had little or no training because a competent RN would have had one look at her and called 911.


I guess the other issue is the media.
I think the fish bowl of celebrity is becoming deadly. More and more you see people begin to collapse under the weight of the cameras.
I guess it must be a horrible push pull, loving the attention but hating the intrusion that makes your life no different than a reality show.
I guess we can't help ourselves..human beings love destruction. There is no finer enjoyment than seeing some ones life shattered on the TV.
Is it because no one has their own life anymore?

Remember that test I talked about awhile back? The one where you go to work and be incessantly cheerful all day? and your co-workers get really irritable about it?
Try being sad and miserable all day...you wont be able to get away from the compassionate hugs.
No one likes happy.

posted by adventures in disaster @ 11:10 PM